selling photos

i've mentioned before that i work at my local paper. anyway, a guy i work with told me today there is a man intrested in buying one of my photos. (i'll include it if i can) man said he'd pay for the framing and matting. but i have no idea what to even charge for something like that. and i suppose i'm going to need to know in the future. help?

Make sure you understand him correctly in that he wants to buy A PRINT OF THE PHOTO...and not the copyright. For a high quality print I'd expect to pay anywhere from $25-$500 depending on the level of expertise and the size. Remember, that price should be over the production cost...producing it on regular paper or linen, etc, can get costly.

Selling spec work is different than being hired as a photographer so keep that in mind. I wouldn't expect you to be hired by the guy to take the photo for that same amount of money.

BTW, it's a good pic. But do you have photoshop? I could probably be improved in the contrast department.

anyway, this particular photo is two pictures spliced together. thats why they look sort of weird in the middle. which might also make it a bit tricky to print. but i think i can size it to any size i'd like, right?

a lot of my photos are only on disk and negatives at this point. i rarely print them. (dont need to for the paper)

also, this is a picture they published in the paper. but they guy i worked with didnt mention that i have to sell it through the paper.

I haven't sold any of my work, but I have prepared pieces for shows. If I were to sell those pieces, I wouldn't frame them at a store (someone said that runs about $50). I'd do it myself, I think the results are much better. However, the supplies are expensive. If you haven't framed things in the past, you need to keep in mind:

Pantsy, look around and see what photos sell for. (Not the cheap pics you can pick up at the mart). If you go to a print shop you'll find that the frame, matting and glass can really add up. I always check out photos at art fairs and Pike Place Market and a few hundred dollars is nothing. (now I haven't paid that but I'm always looking.)

Don't sell yourself short. Figure out you costs for selling it to him then be sure to pay yourself! Someday you'll laugh at the fact that you think more than fifty bucks would be pretenious.